Cleveland, Ohio – After Dodge blew past 800hp with the 2018 Challenger SRT Demon (840hp), the question becomes who’s going to top it, and when? For the Today’s Motor Vehicles’ late-April poll, I asked how likely a 1,000hp car would be by 2020.
The far-from-emphatic answer is maybe, according to poll votes.
Slightly fewer than half (47%) of voters said a factory-built hot rod with 1,000 horses under the hood was highly likely or a virtual certainty. I’m sure a few of those would have been willing to put down deposits on such a monster, sight unseen.
However, the single most common answer (35%) was maybe, putting the likelihood of such a vehicle between 21% and 40%. Interestingly, the lowest probability option – 0% chance to 20% – got no votes whatsoever, and the middle-of-road position was only slightly more popular.
So where does that leave us? Nowhere clear. Some readers think a super-powerful muscle car is a foregone conclusion, but a lot of others think the odds are against such a track beast. Personally, I think the odds are in favor of more power.
Sure, fuel economy regulations would make it tough to offer one, but when automaker race team egos and bragging rights are at stake, development money typically follows. And really, with the supercharged Chevrolet LT4 engine already producing 650hp in the Z06 Corvette, is General Motors really going to let Ford and Dodge fight it out for king of the hill?
About the author: Robert Schoenberger is the editor of Today’s Motor Vehicles and a contributor to Today’s Medical Developments and Aerospace Manufacturing and Design. He has written about the automotive industry for more than 17 years at The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Ohio; The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky; and The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Mississippi.